The “Hollywood Bubble” is most definitely a thing. Inside it, certain opinions are required. Other outlooks appear to not be tolerated. A group-think echo chamber develops that would put your average social media feed to shame. A human algorithm, policed with fervor, dominates from Hancock Park, across the Hollywood Hills and deep into Studio City.
You know this, because when some creatives escape it, they unload. Most of the really interesting quotes and comments come from talent when they are overseas. It’s why events like Cannes and Venice often generate interesting interviews.
The latest to break ranks when free of Hollywood oversight is playwright and Oscar-winning screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea, Margaret, Gangs Of New York).
While in Portugal and delivering a masterclass to students, he spoke with the local publication Observador and, in an interview that is spreading online, he didn’t hold back. He said current American cinema itself is the problem:
“We are in the era of ‘messages’ through fiction. It’s a very irritating time, I hope it stops. The problem is with people who say they are always on the right side.
Propaganda makes bad films. American cinema should steer far away from that – when political agendas get involved in cinema then it becomes too simplistic. The films become an opinion and not a story.
Having a point of view is different from conveying a message through a film. You are then forced to manipulate the characters and make them say things they shouldn’t be saying.
A political film can do a great service, but it has to be good… Right now we’re in the age of messaging, and the stuff is bad. It seems to me that people are getting fed up.”
Examples of what he is alluding to might include Latoya Raveneau, executive producer for Disney Television Animation, who recently said she was advancing a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” to insert queerness into children’s animation.
It remains to be seen if Lonergan will be put on the Hollywood naughty step when he returns to the mothership.